Some Republicans and Tea Partiers in and around Moore County are launching a “Clothespin Challenge.” One of the organizers posted this on her Facebook Page:

All you disconcerted or apathetic voters out there, your guy didn’t win the primary? Well, it is time to get with it and join our CLOTHESPIN CHALLENGE!
Romney received 3 million fewer votes than John McCain, assuring an Obama victory. Let’s not let that happen here in NC, and allow Kay Hagan to be reelected because we sat at home.
Join us by posting your picture and promise to vote for Thom Tillis here, and GET OUT THE VOTE!
We are voting Thom Tillis this November!

So, the predominant GOTV strategy this year is ”hold your nose” and mark the box next to the GOP candidate’s name? Is that what we’ve become? From Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms’s appeals for liberty and freedom and limited government to HOLD YOUR NOSE? (SMH)

We got a lot of mileage out of a passionate conservative message. Back then, we were trying to change people’s hearts and minds, as well as their vote. Now, we’re reduced to getting them to change their vote. Mark the R instead of the D. (Hold your nose while you do it.)

As the polls indicate, saying little of substance and hoping voters vent their frustration with Obama on Kay Hagan is not working.

Give us something to vote FOR, as opposed to something to vote AGAINST.

46 thoughts on “#NCSEN: The charge of the clothespin brigade”

The real problem in NC is the dim witted Phil Berger.He will elect Roy Cooper and destroy the majority in the senate and house all by himself.He is losing the independents faster than the Titanic sank.What it took republicans over 100 yrs to accomplish Berger will destroy in just a few years.He is the dems salvation.

The stupid party is pushing Toll Roads on top of a high gas tax? They support solar / wind subsidies. McCrory is joined at the hip with June Atkinson and supports Leftists on key commissions.They support public private partnerships and other crony corporate positions.

I’m not blaming Berger. Most folks in NC have never heard of him. Actually, he and Dan Forest are the only ones showing any kind of leadership in this state. The Republicans will elect Cooper b/c they could not find 1 person to run against him in 2012, thus giving him 4 free years to raise $$$ and run for governor.

Yes. I want something to vote FOR…but for the Senate race in NC, I’m not sure we have it this year. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not voting. Thus, the nose-holding.

Here’s an FYI for you….Not all together correct on they ‘couldn’t find a candidate’. They did not LOOK for anyone to run against Cooper. In fact, the former “Chair of the Candidate Search Committee” (the one that never existed and never recruited anyone according to Hayes, King, and the candidates they selected) Mr. Greg Dorority of Beaufort County admitted to me personally that ‘the big boys’ were satisfied with AG. That confession was at a Ron Paul delegate meetup in 2012 where Mr. Dorority attempted to recruit a challenger to Rep. Butterfield from amongst the RP delegates.

Through information and belief, some known candidates recruited: Rep. Steve Ross, Arthur Williams, Randy Ramsey, AJ Doud, and several others I could name. While Dorority chaired the group, no one wants to own up to being part of the committee. Skip Stam and Thom have their fingerprints all over it though.

What to vote FOR: Thom Tillis has a track record getting things done in NC. He is pro-life, pro-marriage, fiscally responsible, hard-working, organized, no-nonsense and sensible. The state legislature under his leadership balanced the state budget and is getting NC out of federal debt. What about lower taxes, jobs, balanced budgets, a better healthcare system, and conservative social policies are you not FOR???!!!

Marriage? Tillis has flipflopped on that. In the Senate primary, he skipped his local county GOP convention to go to a meeting with a group out west that is promoting gay marriage. He also had a leading money man of the gay marriage cause hold a fundraiser for him in New York City.

Health care? Tillis pushed a bill through the state House (fortunately killed in the conservative Senate) to create a state Obamacare exchange in North Carolina, and worked hard to try to save the option for the Obamacare Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, until the conservative Senate forced his hand on it.

Balanced state budget? That is required by the state constitution. Tillis had no choice in that matter, fortunately.

Right to life? That is not one of my own top issues, although I am generally pro-life, but a friend who is active on that issue cites chapter and verse on where Tillis plays a different game than the one he talks.

Fiscally responsible? Is that what you call his idiot move to pay ”reparations” to a large group who claims to have been wronged by the state, and strongarming a very reluctant Senate to go along with it? I am sure Rev. Barber and Jesse Jackson are both salivating over the precedent that sets.

I could run through some other issues, but I have confined myself to the ones you bring up.

I finally changed my voter registration to unaffiliated today. I used to tell people it was important to attend the GOP convention and be heard – until I saw how blithely the leadership would ignore platform planks and the yearly manipulation they pull to keep debate time down and “oops out of time, break quorum, see ya next year”.

What’s even the point of giving them money? So they can channel it to consultant buddies who blow it on radio and TV ads most people ignore?

You did the right thing Delegate Z !!! Being unaffiliated allows you complete freedom to yell LOUDER from the sidelines, and I also avoid sending a dime to the GOP anymore…I’ve been a democrackkk, republicannot, libertarian, now unaffiliated…it’s the best spot…people who are still democrackkks are either government dependent or very low information, limited brain types…NC is full of these people…

Unfortunately, it also increases the odds that all you can do is yell from the sidelines because you will have no one to vote for. Conservatives registering unaffilliated only means that the Big Government Republicans will have more control over the nomination process and make it even less likely that a Limited Government Republican will get to the general election. It is shooting yourself in the foot and a coward’s way out. To elect conservatives, we first have to nominate conservatives, and there is currently no functioning mechanism to get conservative independents on the ballot or to support them if they got there. Getting the GOP nomination is the only viable path out there, and you want to make that more difficult.
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So, delegate Z, when are you going to run and win a local, state, and then national party office and change how these things get done from the local level on up? Dropping out is pathetic. Where are the people with the “right stuff” to hang in there for the long haul?

OFGS, there was a PRIMARY. Get over it people. Thom Tillis won. Do I agree with him 100%? No. Do I agree with any politician 100% including Rand Paul and Ted Cruz? NO!

Suck it up, hold your nose and get HAGan out! This purity standard is what gave us 4 more years of Obeyme. Do y’all really want 4 more years of Harry Reid? GMAFB and stop whining and acting like petulant (liberal) children and vote for the GOP candidate that WON the primary.

Again, no. I’m just as uninterested in depending on the “right” federal judges to preserve what’s left of my liberty as I am voting for a Republican just because he’s a Republican, regardless of the actual policies he pursues.

If the “wrong” federal judges get appointed, perhaps it will spur the states in to finally refusing to comply with unconstitutional rules in a binding way that calls Washington’s bluff. Nothing will change substantially until that happens.

In the meantime, all the carping and complaining in the world won’t win Thom one more vote. Perhaps those in positions of influence could prevail on him to reverse course on a couple issues…say, tolling NC highways, or supporting “green” energy subsidies. Perhaps some willingness to compromise, policy-wise, from the candidate would result in conservative hard-heads showing a willingness to return the favor and make compromises of their own.

However, if the candidate is NOT willing to do any of that, I see no reason why you would realistically expect conservatives to cut him any slack. After all, there’s very little difference between a Democrat who won’t listen to her constituents and a Republican who won’t listen to his.

After meeting one of these judicial candidates for Supreme Court, I fail to see the desperate need to run and get behind those Republicans either. This lone candidate actually said NO, our state and people cannot refuse to comply or nullify any Presidential Executive Order no matter how outlandish they may become.

No joke. That’s what this man said to me straight up and without a smile. When following up I asked, even if it was to take our guns the answer remained NO. We cannot legally do that.

Not calling him out by name, but This is a “Republican” running for the NC Supreme Court. You can figure it out for yourselves. He’s not an answer either. He’s a damned enabler of tyrants.

You hold your nose types, take a long look in the mirror. Want to know why we are where we are today? You’re looking at it. It’s time to withdrawal consent. Everyone.

The problem has NOTHING to do with personalities, or which candidate won or lost the primary. It has EVERYTHING to do with issues and principles. Brannon would have made a great Senator but he was only an average candidate. Of course, Tillis would make an awful Senator and is also an awful candidate. I could have supported ANY or the other primary candidates other than Tillis (and I don’t know about the phantom Bradshaw) in the general election. While Tillis is an awful candidate, I could still perhaps hold my nose for him if he would just credibly take a conservative stand on some key conservative issues. Tillis absolutely refuses to do that. He is either liberal or talks out of both sides of his mouth on all the key issues, and that is just not acceptable. I don’t look to see if a candidate has an R by their name; I look to see if they have an R in their heart, and so far Tillis has shown just the opposite.

The liberal Big Government Republicans killed the concept of holding ones nose to vote for a Big Government Republican when they pulled those absolutely despicable dirty tricks to steal the GOP nomination from the conservative in Mississippi in the Senate primary.

When conservatives lost to an establishment Republican in the NC Senate primary before, as in Bill Stevens and Jim Broyhill, at least the establishment candidates had some significant bona fides on some conservative issues, and that made it easy to hold my hose for them. Tillis has no such bona fides so far, and unless he can establishment some between now and election day, he will not be getting my vote. It is all about issues, not about personalities, and it becomes annoying when idiot liberal Republicans want to talk personalities, as in the crowd this article is about, but ignore the important thing which is issues.

One third rail issue right now is illegal immigration, and unless a candidate is solidly against amnesty in any form, then I will not be voting for him/her.

Tillis and his fellow travellers are barking up the wrong tree is they want to attract conservative votes.

I don’t give a rats rear end about personalities or who won or lost the primaries. I want someone I can trust on key conservative policy issues in the Senate. As this point, none of the candidates on the ballot meet that test. If Tillis wants to get conservative votes, he needs to stop whining about who won or lost the primary, and start taking some strong stands on key conservative issues.

I want Republicans who consider amnesty to feel like they could end up like Tillis. 46% in a primary and losing the general.

2016 is going to be a big year for Senate primaries. The GOP could win the senate with or without Tillis. But the GOP senate is going to be a “do nothing conservative” senate. So the whole idea of protecting the senate R majority in 2016 in a better year for Democrats won’t sell. I want Ayotte, Hoeven, Kirk, Burr and McCain primaried.

The establishment really sent that message in Mississippi, and Richard ”Tricky Dick” Burr helped finance the despicable Watergate-style dirty tricks that stole the nomination from conservative Chris McDaniel. We conservatives heard their message from Mississippi loud and clear, and it is not a message of party unity. They made their bed, so let them lie in it.

Party unity? YOU are the one attacking party unity, if you can’t lose a primary election and suck it up. Get over the Presidential race, and get with the current LOCAL ones! We can change the convention rules only when conservatives WIN and only if we WIN OFTEN by large numbers. That means using that clothespin and coming out of your petulant hole into the real world, not your private political pity party.

You do not seem to realize where it was that the GOP establishment blew up party unity. It was not in a presidential race. It was in the Senate primary in Mississippi. It you are still clueless about that, here is an account from a major British newspaper about the nasty dirty tricks that were pulled by the establishment:

Oh, and I am rock solid on voting Republican on every other race on the ballot, from Congress to County Commissioner, including the GOP endorsed judges, because they are all either solid on conservative principles or solid enough that I am willing to take a chance on them. Three of those GOP nominees are not the ones I voted for in the primary. I agree that we cannot hold a personal grudge over primary results, but on the other hand we cannot brainlessly vote for someone just because they have an R by their name, when they do NOT have an R in their hearts on principles. Issues matter; personalities do NOT.

There is not a single major issue that I trust Thom Tillis on. He is a weasel who plays all ends against the middle. Instead of an R in his heart, he has a ”for sale or rent to the higher bidder” sign. He is nothing but a rent boy for the special interests. He has had the opportunity to try to reinvent himself in this campaign as someone who cares about principles, but he has not even tried.

I’d love to know which convention rules you think we conservatives can change? Some of us have been fighting for rule changes for years, and when we win, the establishment goes behind us and undoes any changes we manage to make. Witness the tossing of the old party platform in Cherokee, including several planks that were hard fought for.

And what does this have to do with the general election? Continuing to elect republicans like Tillis instead of true conservatives just tells the establishment that we will settle for whomever they choose. And Tillis doesn’t seem to think he needs my vote so he won’t get it.

See what happens when you let the RINO-loving Karl Rove and the Chamber of Horrors meddle in Republican elections, anywhere? Didn’t any of you notice Rove’s wretched losing track record?

Rove’s enablers in NC are probably about to learn a bitter lesson, but all of us are going to suffer for their foolishness.

My conservative vote must be earned, and Tillis hasn’t even tried. Don’t bother, dragging out that dead horse “Lesser of Two Evils” argument, either. I’m way past that, now, and my vote is no longer up for grabs. I’ll be writing in the name of one of the three candidates who qualified for the Senate race–probably John Rhodes.

By the way, I’ve got a list of places you can stick your clothespin, champ, and “Nose” isn’t on it.

One stated most don’t know who Berger is.That may be true.But he is the one trying to beat Tillis and McCrory with his idiocy.It beat his son and in a statewide race he would lose in a landslide.I think all of you who think Phil Berger is doing a great job will love it when Cooper is governor and the dems are back in control for another 100+ years.Bully Barber and Chris Fitzsimon will be happily welcomed at the Governor’s Mansion and you unhappy weasels can post away daily.I am going to post what Ann Coulter has to say in response to your not voting for the so called “establishment” candidate and leaving Reid and Pelosi firmly in control.Which,by the way ,puts the most important courts in the land firmly in control of the leftist dems for decades to come.the Federal Courts.And the Supreme Court if a dem wins the presidency which I expect in 2016 because with enough of you far right and libertarian fruits and nuts no one will be pure enough to suit your high moral standard.

Ann Coulter: The biggest current danger for Republicans is that idiots will vote for Libertarian candidates in do-or-die Senate elections, including Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Colorado. (That’s in addition to the “Independent” in Kansas who’s a Democrat.) Democratic candidates don’t have to put up with this crap — they’re even trying-have dumped- to dump the official Democrat in Kansas to give the stealth Democrat a better shot.

When we’re all dying from lack of health care across the United States of Mexico, we’ll be deeply impressed with your integrity, libertarians.

Which brings me to my final assignment this week: If you are considering voting for the Libertarian candidate in any Senate election, please send me your name and address so I can track you down and drown you.

I will agree with you that the open borders Libertarian running in NC is a blithering idiot. No knowledgable conservative would vote for him. But Hagan and Tillis are both almost as bad on that critical issue, so who do we have to vote for? Tillis is nothing but another Lindsay Graham or worse.

Ann Coulter? She is an establishment broad, although usually fairly conservative on the major issues, including illegal immigration. But when it comes to candidates, she has pushed hard in primaries for some real establishment suckweasels like Mitch ”Kentucky Kickback” McConnell, Whorin’ Orin Hatch, and Thad Cochroach.

Someone on here is talking about not voting in one of the judicial races over “nullification.” Seriously? Our statewide (not federal) appellate courts are going to be facing voter ID, redistricting, school vouchers, tax reform, education reform, etc. And one issue – nullification – on which reasonable conservatives disagree – is going to keep someone from voting for one of the judges? Are you freakin’ kidding me? As a hardcore conservative TEA party Federalist Society lawyer, even I’m not sure on “nullification,” its exact definition (it means different things to different folks), or whether it is even an issue for STATE court judges. But I am MORE concerned over whether our state appellate courts will overturn redistricting, voter ID, opportunity scholarships, etc.

I didn’t marry my wife because she is perfect (and she CERTAINLY didn’t marry me because I am; far from it, in fact). While my wife is perfect for ME, we are both imperfect individuals. The same thing for political candidates…and judges. If you’re waiting for one to agree with you 100% of the time, then that means YOU need to run for office, because the only person who will agree with you that much is yourself.

What I’m looking for in my judicial candidates – especially me being a lawyer – are these characteristics: tough, fair, impartial. Also: having a “Framers’ Intent” view of the Constitution and all of its Amendments, having a “natural law” theory rather than one of “positive rights,” a belief that the Constitution is a “dead” rather than a “living” document, being closer in line to the judicial philosophy of justices like Scalia and Thomas rather than Ginsburg and Breyer.

This is what matters rather than just “nullification.” Am I concerned about federal overreach? Darn skippy. Am I concerned about any governmental body passing unconstitutional laws? Sho’ ‘nuf. Do I believe that every elected official – not just the judges – is bound by the Constitutions (state and federal) and must follow them? Right on. But is one conservative/Republican judicial candidate’s statement on “nullification” going to keep me from voting for him or her, just on that issue, when I agree with that judicial candidate on just about everything else, and our state has much bigger, immediate issues to worry about? No.

Well said, North – As a precinct chair in NC, I say it is about time to shut up about perfect candidates and party politics, and decide it is better to win every election than lose ANY race to a liberal candidate. Put on a clothespin if you have to, but vote for the most conservative candidate on the ballot. Just because your clique did not have enough votes to win a primary election does not give you a pass on voting in a general one. We are about to lose a REPUBLIC, not just an election, if you don’t stop whining and wringing your hands at home.

The problem is when you end up with too Big Government candidates, and there is really not a dime’s worth of difference on the issues. Then you end up with nobody to vote for. Tillis has a bad record on issues which he needs to overcome, but he has not even tried to reinvent himself in this race. Indeed, he attaches himself to other Big Government politicians like Joe Strauss and Chris Christie. Tillis still has a little bit of time, but the clock is ticking.

Tillis’ campaign has not made any real distinctions with Hagan on any major issue. Indeed, he has done everything he can to make himself indistinguishable from Hagan. When voters have a hard time telling the difference, then that is not the voters fault. It is the candidate and his campaign advisers fault.

When the difference is between a Big Government Republican and a Big Government Democrat, that is no real choice.

Tillis has had a chance to run a campaign that would appeal to conservative voters but so far he has failed and refused to do so. There is not much time left. Many conservative voters are through holding their nose and voting for the lesser of two evils, and the establishment dirty tricks in Mississippi had a lot to do with that. Tillis’ shot at conservative votes is to make a case ON THE ISSUES. Is his campaign staff bright enough to figure that out before it is too late?

You can see from the post that these “so called conservatives are really wolves in sheeps clothing.They want everyone to believe Thom Tillis is a liberal and Hagen is conservative.Who are they kidding.This is the lies the liberals use all the time.I suggest these are plants from the democrat party and operatives from BlueNC or some other far left democrat organization.Tillis has a very good conservative record of accomplishment.The reason they pushed for Brannon was he was by far the weakest and easiest to defeat by the dems.And in the end when the chips were down it became apparent to everyone including him.Keep an eye on the same ones who post here and you will see the same pattern of deceit against republican office holders and nominees.

As far as plants go, IMHO you are a plant from either the US Chamber of Crony Capitalism (Commerce), Karl Rove, or the Rippon Society. You constantly regurgitate establishment crapola.

As far as who the weak general election candidate among the GOP primary candidates was, the polls back at primary time were clear. In November matchup polls with Hagan, Thom Tillis rather consistently came out as the weakest. I am sorry but your personal opinion does not trump what the polls told us.

Brannon was far from perfect. I would much rather have had Dan Forest or Jim Cain as nominee if they had run. But he lacked the amount of baggage that Tillis has (although he did have some of his own) and he would have challenged Hagan on the issues, something Tillis’ lousy record makes him afraid to do. The way to beat Democrats is on the issues not prancing around talking about ”effectiveness” and the like.

Kay Hagan is certainly no conservative. I cannot remember anyone on here (except maybe Pelican) claiming that she was. Hagan is a Big Government Democrat and indeed a flaming socialist Obamacrat. But Tillis is a Big Government Republican and not a heck of a lot better, and therein lies the problem. Tillis does not have a conservative record, and he is not campaigning on conservative issues.

First, Art, if someone sends you their name and address, shouldn’t be too hard to “track” them down. Second, drown them??? How does that work? Do you carry around large containers of water? I’ll send you Pelicans address and watch.

It is apparent that you are just a circle of a few trolls and have the same tired talking points No republican is conservative enough for you and you have no answers but to put down the republican party and its nominees.Pedal your trash to each other.No one really cares.November will show you just how important your point of view and all your trolling for the democrats really is.Troll away for Blue NC.I have your number now and know your game.

Many of us have held our noses for less than conservative candidates the establishment has nominated in the past, like Elizabeth Dole, Jim Broyhill, and Bill Stevens. On the gubenatorial side, we crossed our fingers and supported McCrory, and some of us (at least me) gave him money. But Tillis is a bridge too far. Tillis does not have even a slightly conservative record, and he dodges conservative issues or talks out of both sides of his mouth. Tillis has had a chance to earn our votes, but has failed so far, and time is running short. The short session of the General Assembly made it even more difficult for conservatives to support Tillis because Tillis championed some really obnoxious liberal legislation like the late slush fund / tax increase bill and surrendering state sovereignty over our coastal waters to the Obama feds.

Do you really expect conservatives to be chomping at the bit to support someone who pushed Obamacare at the state level as hard as he could? Someone who in debate said he supports ”practical gun control” and got a lousy D- on 2nd Amendment issues from the National Association for Gun Rights? Someone who told the NC Farm Bureau that he supports ”a pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens and has pushed legislation to gut the use of e-Verify in North Carolina? Someone who has pushed the interests of the corrupt Green Energy crony capitalists at the expense of electric ratepayers in the General Assembly and is now silent on Obama’s EPA regs which will hit electric ratepayers even harder? The list could go on. Thom Tilli$ has no one other than himself and his own lousy, lousy, lousy record for the fact that conservatives are allergic to him. And he refuses to do a darn thing to reach out to us on issues.

As to the Republican Party, it has excellent nominees for every office in my county other than US Senate, and I have contributed to a number of them. We have a much less than optimal Senate nominee because we have allowed out of state party bosses to meddle in our primary. I would like to see a resolution passed at the next state convention declaring Karl Rove, the US Chamber of Commerce, the NRSC, and Haley Barbour persona non grata in NC primaries.

The lesser of the evils theory used to work, but the Big Government Republicans screwed the pooch on that with what they did in Mississippi. Take your complaints to party boss and K Street lobbyist Haley Barbour on that!

We in the GOP could have nominated a candidate who would have been acceptable to both wings of the party. I have mentioned two of them, Dan Forest and Jim Cain. Cain and Forest also bring no baggage like Tillis, Brannon, and Harris did, and both would be far and away better campaigners. Nominating anyone from the legislature meant making them, and through them the rest of the ticket, a focus for a Blueprint attack, something we would have avoided by nominating a non-legislator. Tillis was also very poorly positioned due to his own record to exploit the weak spots of Hagan.

But anyone with a brain should have realized that someone like Tillis who has had a war on conservative legislation and a war on conservative legislators would never be the sort of candidate the party could rally around easily. BTW, I would like to see someone photoshop the scene from Wizard of Oz with Shumaker’s face on the Scarecrow when he was singing ”If I only had a brain”. That would make an appropriate video for the way the Tillis campaign has been run.